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June 2012 eBook of the Month.

Excelling at character and with a laser sharp interest in small details that brings scenes to life, her follow up novel to the award winning Saraswati Park follows the central character Leela as she tries to define herself in the world after graduating from Cambridge. It’s vivid, evocative, contemporary writing.

The Good Pilot, Peter Woodhouse by Alexander Mccall Smith

One very lucky winner will receive a signed copy by Alexander McCall Smith of his latest novel, The Good Pilot, Peter Woodhouse. To have a chance of winning this fantastic prize, click the button below. Please note that this draw is open only for UK residents and is free to enter, multiple entries from the same email address will only be counted once.

The draw closes on 4 January 2018. The winner will be notified by 15th January 2018,

Synopsis

Another Country by Anjali Joseph

They'd discussed it earlier, in the days of their friendship: the need to reach a certain phase in one's life, to become a householder, to enter the world and leave behind the selfish days of youth. Paris, London, Bombay: three cities form a backdrop to a journey through Leela's twenties at the dawn of the new millennium, as she learns to negotiate the world, work, relationships and sex, and find some measure of authenticity. Sharp, funny, and melancholy, Another Country brings a cool eye to friendship, love, and the idea of belonging in its movements through old and new worlds. As with her debut, Saraswati Park (2010), which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Prize and India's Vodafone Crossword Prize, Anjali Joseph's beautiful, clear writing captures exactly both emotions and surroundings.

Reviews

Praise for Saraswati Park: Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize Winner of the Betty Trask Prize Winner of the Vodafone Crossword Book Award Shortlisted for the Ondaatje Award Shortlisted for the Hindu Best Fiction Award Shortlsted for a Commonwealth WritersPrize :

'Joseph contrasts the inner and outer lives of her characters, and the uneasy friction between new and old cultures, with all the wit and delicacy of a latter-day Mrs Gaskell'The Times

'How true to life it seems -- the background of disconsolate rains and chattering mynah birds entirely Bombay, the preoccupations universal!a generous book where absolutes are neither sought nor found.'Guardian

'An elegantly realised portrait of unrequited love, frustrated aspirations and the unspoken compromises of marriage and family. Joseph neatly weaves in elements of the rapid social change occurring in the ever-expanding city but her principal concern is the more complex process of personal change and development and its bittersweet effects: the nerves, hang-ups and pains of youth and the regrets, pleasures and fulfilment of old age'Observer

'Joseph writes beautifully about quietness and stillness!she evokes the physical world that her characters inhabit exactly, without ever resorting to the sort of touristic colour that mars some English language Indian novels!this is a quiet, restrained novel but a great deal is going on beneath the surface'Sunday Times

'Both a coming-of-age novel and a portrait of a long marriage, Anjali Joseph's promising debut novel is a bittersweet, charming and likable book!Joseph's good-humoured and elegant prose, her appealing, complex characters and a beautifully realised Mumbai setting make for a bewitching read.'Irish Times

'This is the best debut novel I've read for a long time: admirable in its masterful ease, moving in its constant surrender to compassion and wonder'Amit Chaudhuri

About the Author

Anjali Joseph was born in Bombay in 1978. She read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has taught English at the Sorbonne. More recently she has written for the Times of India in Bombay and been a Commissioning Editor for ELLE (India). She graduated from the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia with distinction in 2008. Saraswati Park is her first novel.